A federal judge has extended a block on the Trump administration’s “anti-weaponization fund” for citizens who claimed former President Joe Biden’s (D) administration targeted them.
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema made the extension on Friday, Just the News reported.
“Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told Congress earlier this month that the Trump administration was ending plans for the fund due to bipartisan backlash,” the outlet said. “Attorneys for the federal government argued that, in the face of the administration’s decision to terminate the plans, the lawsuits against it are moot,” noting Brinkema argued the mootness point did not “go anywhere.”
The judge had previously agreed to temporarily block payments regarding the fund, according to the Hill, while Just the News explained “The $1.776 billion fund was part of a settlement to end Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns by contractor Charles Littlejohn, who pleaded guilty.”
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) in May pledged his support for the anti-weaponization fund, Breitbart News reported.
Johnson stated:
You know, the timing of the weaponization fund was unfortunate, but I completely support it. Under the Biden administration, there was a massive amount of weaponization of government against ordinary citizens. For example, in Wisconsin, Judge Troupis — a man who represented President Trump in doing exactly what John F. Kennedy did when the electors were in question in Hawaii back in 1960 — he is now up on felony forgery charges because of weaponization. They’re destroying him, probably about $2 million worth of legal funds. That’s exactly what these funds have been used for in the past. Obama used them. Other presidents have done it. It was just a timing issue. But, of course, Democrats will always take the political advantage here. And that’s the only reason that I think we said, OK, let’s calm the situation down. Let’s come on back. Let’s regroup.
And let’s figure out a way of handling this, because I think this fund is needed. I think it’s only in fairness when you have such massive weaponization against ordinary citizens. Something should be there. We will probably have to come up with some kind of guardrails.
During a recent interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, President Donald Trump explained the fund, stating, “People have been hurt so badly by radical left lunatics that work for the Biden administration and Sleepy Joe.”
He continued:
They’re vicious, they’re violent, what they did to people. And of course, they went after me more than anybody else. They raided Mar-A-Lago and all the other things. But people have been badly hurt. They’ve committed suicide. They’ve lost their jobs. They’ve lost their families. They’ve lost their wives. They’ve lost everything. They’ve lost everything over a fake weaponization of government.
When asked if he was going to revive it, the president said:
Well, look, it was up to me I’d pay them the kind of money that they deserve. People have been destroyed. Lives have been destroyed. Many suicides. Think of it. People have committed suicide because a bunch of thugs went after them. Me personally, I think the weaponization fund is a great idea.
The Biden administration took aim at conservative groups and media including Breitbart News, targeted pro-life activists — often at the behest of pro-abortion groups — and also worked to punish Christians who held traditional values, according to Breitbart News reports.
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